


Habits

by xSpookyScarySkeletonsx



Series: Future Politics [2]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, The fluffiest fluff, don't ask me what i'm doing with my life, there are lots of dogs, this is longer than it should have been
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-26 20:12:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15008540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xSpookyScarySkeletonsx/pseuds/xSpookyScarySkeletonsx
Summary: Shared interests and hobbies are important in a relationship. Dogspotting totally counts, right?





	Habits

**Author's Note:**

> Me: Lemme just make up some oc for a oneshot real quick.  
> Also me: accidentally gets obsessed and continues writing.  
> So the saga continues, I guess.

Dating an android wasn’t easy. Lindsay had known that from the very beginning. Even working with androids hadn’t quite prepared her for some of Connor’s weird little quirks. From his running commentary on all her unhealthy habits _(‘You have exceeded the maximum recommended daily intake of caffeine for someone your weight and height.’_ ) to his affinity for providing facts that nobody asked for (‘ _Excessive caffeine consumption can lead to insomnia, nervousness, irritability, an increased heart rate and even muscle tremors.’_ ), Connor drove her up the wall sometimes. But the worst of his quirks were the more robotic ones, based on his non-existent understanding of what could potentially be considered oversharing by others. More specifically,by humans. Lindsay grimaced every time she asked him about a conversation he had and Connor sent her an exact protocol of the exchange, every single word included. 

‘ _It’s like I’m in your head,_ ’ Lindsay had exclaimed in barely hidden terror the first time it happened. Connor had just blinked at her, LED going orange, before stating he didn’t understand. There had been a large amount of time spent with Lindsay trying to explain why it was _weird_. It had made no difference.

 But that was nothing compared to the time he had essentially sent her a screenshot of his field of vision. Lindsay had frowned at her phone for several seconds before realizing what she was looking at. Then she had shrieked in terror, throwing the device away from herself.

 

So when she received a text from Connor during a meeting on a particularly boring Monday afternoon and her lockscreen informed her it was a _media file_ , Lindsay decided to err on the side of caution and not open it with so many people around. 

 

When the dull meeting (that should have really been a three-sentence notification on the departments intranet) was over, Lindsay headed back to her office, only to be followed by her superior who just wouldn’t stop talking about the party she had been to on the weekend. Lindsay already found Gabriela annoying at the best of times but in this very moment she was infuriating. They weren’t 15 anymore. Going to a party wasn’t exactly special. Then her gaze fell over to her phone and she wondered what the chances would be of her getting fired for looking at whatever Connor had sent in front of her supervisor. After all it could be work related. Although those files usually arrived at her work email. Lindsay had to suppress a smile at the thought that if Connor were here, he would be able to calculate her chance of keeping her job based on the colour of the shirt her superior wore today. Or something to that effect. 

 

Eventually Gabriela left, announcing she was going home, leaving Lindsay to wonder if she didn’t have any damn work to do. Lindsay herself was already behind on the things she had planned to accomplish that day, thanks to that ridiculous meeting and her superiors chattiness. A few more minutes really didn’t matter anymore now so she shut the door to her office, grabbed a snack from the top drawer of her desk and finally opened Connor’s text message, mentally preparing herself for another instance of _something weird and wildly unsettling._

 

The media file turned out to be a picture. An actual photo, presumably taken on the phone Connor owned but didn’t technically need. (His ability to electronically communicate with his equivalent of a brain was another one of those things that freaked most humans out.)

For a moment Lindsay just let herself feel relieved. Then her focus shifted to what was actually in the photo; a puppy. A little, adorable, _very fluffy_ puppy. She lingered on the picture for a moment, taking in the cuteness before scrolling down to the caption. 

_‘Ashley from forensics brought their new puppy in to meet everyone today.’_

Only now Lindsay realised the picture had clearly been taken at the precinct. 

_‘It’s so cute!!! Did you get to pat it?’_

Then she frowned at her phone. Connor had taken a photo. Of a dog. Just to send it to her. There was no significance to the event other than the dog itself. Lindsay barely knew Ashley from forensics. 

_‘I did. It was very soft up until it bit me. I thought you might enjoy seeing it.’_

Lindsay couldn’t help but to giggle a little, in a ridiculous teenage-girl-way. Gross. 

_‘Aw I’m so jealous! Well, maybe not of the biting part.’_

She opened her muesli bar at the same time as one of her social media apps, scrolling through the various photos, live videos and text posts mindlessly, all the while chewing on her snack. Then her phone vibrated again, signalling another incoming message.

 

_‘Ashley said we could come to their house on the weekend so you can pat Baxter, too.’_

_‘Did you seriously ask them?’_

_‘Yes, how else would I know if they agreed to us coming over?’_

Lindsay barely knew Ashely, hardly even remembered what they looked like, and she most definitely didn’t want to go to their house. But on the other hand... _puppy_. 

 

_‘I can’t believe you.’_

_‘You said you were jealous I got to pat Baxter. Now you get to pat him, too. I don’t see the problem?’_

Of course he didn’t. 

_‘There’s no problem. Anyway, shouldn’t you be working?’_

_‘Technically I am. We’re in the car on the way to question a witness. And I could ask you the same thing.’_

_‘Give me a break; I just got out of a meeting on fucking lab safety. Then Gabriela wouldn’t stop talking to me. I totally deserve five minutes off.’_

 

There was no reply for a little while and Lindsay was just about to get back to work when she received another media file. This one took her straight to her phone’s GPS, the program calculating a route to an address over the other side of town. 

_‘Questioning turned into an active crime scene. We need you to come down.’_

 

In the rush that was the rest of that day, Lindsay forgot all about the dog photo. But a few days later, when she was meeting a friend for a couple of drinks, she spotted someone walk past with the biggest dog Lindsay had ever seen. Lucky for her, she was able to snap a quick picture for Connor. 

After that, dogspotting practically turned into their favourite hobby. The photos they sent ranged from quick snapshots at awkward angles to adorable, almost professional-quality portraits, captioned with details about the dogs.

 

One time Connor even went so far as to break into someone’s office at the precinct, just because he knew their police dog was currently in its kennel in the room. He thought it was a particularly cute dog and worth the risk of being discovered. 

But their obsession hadn’t reached its full scale just yet. That didn’t happen for another two weeks, on a Saturday night.

 

Lindsay had been invited over to a friend’s house for girl’s night, which seemed unreasonably hard for Connor to understand. His occasional bouts of clinginess were one of his more human traits. 

She was ashamed to admit she had almost cancelled when he had told her he just wanted to spend time with her. But in the end she had managed not to cave. It was only healthy for them to spend some time away from each other. And with the fine line between work and home blurring more often than not, Lindsay had reasoned it would be a nice change to spend some time with people who had more _mundane_ problems, like crushes and shopping budgets, rather than crime scenes and murder investigations.

 

But then Lindsay found out that her friend Sophia had recently adopted two puppies. Two adorable, fluffy puppies. Her first instinct had been to snap a photo. Then she remembered Sophia’s strict rule of ‘ _No technology during girl’s night._ ’ 

 

It took Lindsay nearly two hours to find a decent opportunity to wrestle her phone from her pocket and snap a photo. Even then she was discovered, which wasn’t all too surprising considering how hard it was to get a picture of two wriggling balls of fur. 

 

‘Oh my god, put your phone away!’ Sophia yelled from across the room, throwing a pillow at her. Lindsay dodged it easily. But finding an excuse as to why she needed her phone right now wasn’t quite so simple. Lucky for her, Harper came to her defence. 

‘Leave her alone, it could be work! You know Lindsay has that fancy new job working with the police and everything!’ 

Well, technically she was totally texting _the police_. Except _the police_ was currently most likely sitting on her lounge chair, playing some stupid video game, about to receive a really cute puppy picture. Close enough, right? 

Lindsay nodded absentmindedly. ‘Yeah, just checking this one report really quick...’ 

Sophia screeched somewhere across the room. 

 

_‘Meet Salt and Pepper. They’re 14 weeks old and currently chewing on my socks.’_

She added the photo to the text message and hit the send button. 

The reply came almost immediately.

  _‘They’re adorable. Tell them I said hi.’_

Lindsay fought back the stupid smile threatening to take over her expression. After all she was reading a police report. 

Then she received another message.

_‘Wait, you didn’t tell me your friend had dogs?’_

_‘Only found out tonight.’_

_‘I know you said it was girl’s night but can I come over to pat them? I’ll be quick.’_

Lindsay sighed. It was hard to say no when he was being so damn sweet. But her friends wouldn’t be too impressed. On the other hand... Her friends were all immersed in some excited conversation about Harper and her crush on her gardener. Or something. Maybe they would agree without realizing...  

‘Is it alright if Connor comes over really quick?’ 

‘Yeah whatever,’ Sophia mumbled distractedly, reaching for the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table before going back to giving Harper advice on what _flowers_ to get her _gardener_. Then she suddenly stopped mid-sentence and turned back around to Lindsay. 

‘Wait. Connor? As in your boyfriend?’ 

Lindsay shrugged. ‘Yeah, so?’ 

 

He had been a continuous topic of conversation among her friends, who had never actually met him. They didn’t seem to know quite what to make of him, or even the fact that Lindsay was _involved_ with an android. 

‘Oh my god,’ Ava said, frowning, ‘is he that controlling?’ 

Lindsay blinked at her. _Controlling?_  

‘Seriously, that’s not a great sign. I mean if he won’t even let you go to girl’s night...’ 

They all stared at her. 

‘He just wants to pat the puppies.’ 

Lindsay tried hard not to cringe at the awkward moment of silence. 

‘What?’ 

‘He likes dogs.’

‘Fine.’ Sophia shrugged. ‘Might as well meet _Robocop_.’ 

Lindsay decided to ignore the unoriginal nickname as she reached for her phone again, sending Connor a location tag. 

_‘Alright, come over. Let me know when you get here and I’ll let you in.’_

 

It didn’t take long for Connor to arrive and Lindsay plucked _Salt_ off of her lap, popping her on the ground. Then she went to open the door. 

Connor seemed a little awkward when he realized he would actually have to meet her friends. But Lindsay ushered him into the room, quickly introducing everyone before tugging Connor down on the ground next to herself, away from the others. The two puppies immediately came running over to greet the new addition to the group. Connor seemed oblivious to the mildly awkward silence in the room, the only noise coming from the movie still playing on TV. He was far too busy with the two puppies now wrestling with each other on his lap.

 

‘Are you happy now?’ 

_‘Happy?_ ’ He looked at her, features twisting into a small frown. 

‘I meant if you’re happy now that you got to pat the dogs.’ 

‘I wasn’t _unhappy_ before.’ 

For a moment Lindsay was stunned. Then she caught the soft glint in his eyes and the slight upturn of his lips. 

‘You’re being difficult on purpose,’ Lindsay said, trying to sound exasperated, even as she couldn’t hold back a smile. ‘I let you come to girl’s night so you can get puppy cuddles and you’re being difficult on purpose. You’re the absolute worst.’ Lost in her own little world, fingers playing with Pepper’s soft fur and watching Connor look so peaceful and comfortable, she forgot there were other people in the room for a moment. 

 

When her friends hesitantly picked up the conversation where they had previously left off, Lindsay remembered that her and Connor weren’t alone. She stayed in her comfortable position on the floor for a moment longer. 

‘I should go talk to the girls,’ she said eventually. ‘You going to be alright by yourself?’

Connor nodded. ‘Perfectly fine. Go.’

 

Unfolding her legs took Lindsay a little longer than she would have liked and she blamed it on getting _old_. Then she moved to sit on the lounge chair next to Harper, unsure what to expect. 

‘Well, he sure likes dogs.’ 

‘I told you.’ 

The girls could be rather harsh judges when it came to any of them dating new people. It was charming in the sense that they were all quite protective of one another and didn’t want to see anyone in the group get hurt. But sometimes Lindsay also found it overwhelming. It was part of the reason why she hadn’t introduced Connor to her friends before. They had a good thing, Lindsay was sure of it. But there was always so much criticism, so much hate thrown their way from every side. Lindsay had hoped that by not letting her friends meet him, she wouldn’t have to face their opinions of him. It was exhausting to constantly have to explain to everyone that things worked out between them, that she was happy, that she was sure this was the right thing. Sometimes it made her doubt their relationship, thinking that something questioned by _so many_ people maybe really just wasn’t right. Maybe they really were too different. And besides, if her friends discussed their opinions of Connor with her, Lindsay knew she would end up feeling obliged to tell him.

 

Of course Connor knew what people were saying about him, about androids in general. Lindsay imagined he had a _very_ good idea of how most people really felt about androids, sentient or not. While he was awkward and dorky at times, he wasn’t stupid. After all he still was a highly advanced prototype. But he never seemed to care.

His reaction, or absolute lack thereof, to taunts was still the same as before he had become deviant. Sometimes Lindsay wondered if it was just a mask, an act he put on. Either way, Lindsay worried about him. She didn’t want him to have to face any more negativity, especially not coming from people close to her. Like her friends. But now Lindsay supposed it was unavoidable. Might as well get it over with. 

 

‘Let’s hear it, then. I know you guys are just waiting to tell me how much of a bad idea this is.’ 

‘You mean your boyfriend?’ 

Lindsay nodded. 

‘Well, we’ve barely talked to him. Makes it a bit hard to judge, no?‘ Harper was watching her closely. The girl had always been rather intense when it came to analysing people, forever looking for some sort of reaction. 

‘Not like that has ever stopped you before.’ Lindsay tried to keep her tone light but even she heard how defensive she sounded.

 

‘Well,’ Ava spoke up, ‘so far he seems very... _sweet_.’

‘What did you expect?’

Ava shrugged in response. She seemed to think for a moment. ‘I just thought he’d be... _dangerous_ , I guess.  I mean that was him on TV that day, wasn’t it?’ 

Right. The revolution thing. 

‘Yeah. But he’s not dangerous.’ 

_‘At least not right now,’_ Lindsay added in her head. She knew the combat program he was equipped with. She had seen him take out more people than should be possible so fast that she would have missed it had she blinked. If he wanted to, he could kill every single one of them with his bare hands before any of them even had the chance to scream. But Lindsay supposed her friends didn’t need to know any of that, simply because it didn’t affect them. After all it wasn’t like Connor would suddenly decide they were some sort of threat and attack. No, he was too busy playing with _Salt_ and _Pepper_ anyway. 

 

To Lindsay’s surprise, her friends didn’t have much else to say about Connor. The conversation quickly shifted to other things. Somehow Lindsay felt like that was even worse. It was like they were trying to pretend he wasn’t even there. 

 

Once the movie they had been watching finished, Lindsay decided it was time to go home. Her friends protested that it wasn’t even that late yet but Lindsay blamed it on a headache. This of course immediately got Connor’s attention. 

‘You don’t appear to be dehydrated,’ he said as soon as they had left her friend’s apartment and entered the elevator. 

‘What?’ 

‘Your headache. It does not appear to have been caused by dehydration. I can’t detect any alcohol in your system either. How much caffeine did you consume today?’ 

‘I don’t _have_ a headache.’ 

‘But you just said...’ 

‘I know what I said,’ Lindsay cut him off. ‘ _I lied._ ’

 

The elevator doors opened with a ding and Lindsay stepped out into the foyer. When she didn’t hear Connor’s footsteps behind her she turned around to see him still standing in the elevator, head cocked to the side and eyes narrowed at her.

‘You coming?’

Connor blinked before finally following her. ‘I don’t understand why you lied.’

‘I’m tired and I just want to go home.’

‘You could have said that.’

‘True, but a headache was a lot easier.’

 

They arrived at the car, the doors unlocking automatically, sensors scanning the key card in Lindsay’s pocket. Connor stepped up to the driver’s side but Lindsay followed him and used her hip to bump him out of the way.

‘I’m driving.’

‘You just said you were tired.’

‘Doesn’t mean I can’t drive. Now get in the car or I’ll leave you here.’

 

Once in the car Lindsay switched the heater on. How it was _always_ so cold outside she would never understand. She pulled out of the parking lot, trying to think of the best way to get home.

‘Your friends’ names represent an interesting demographic of the most popular girls’ names in the United States from 2012 to 2016.’ 

‘Is that so?’ Clearly a very helpful fact. 

‘Yes. On the other hand your name was only number 657 on the list of most popular girls’ names in 2014.’ 

‘My parents always say they wanted something more traditional.’ 

Connor hummed thoughtfully. ‘Your brother’s name was number one in the year he was born.’ 

‘Well, I guess our parents figured out it sucked to have a kid with a _popular_ name.’ Lindsay thought back to all the Aidens she had gone to school with and shuddered. The name really had been popular.

If there was one thing Connor had learned, it was not to ask about Lindsay’s family. He dropped the issue and instead looked out of the window, watching the city drift by. Lindsay pulled onto the highway, even though it wasn’t the fastest way home. But it was her preferred way. Connor didn’t say anything about it. Only a few months ago he would have complained, confused by the idea of doing something so inefficient just because it was _fun_. Lindsay supposed she had some habits that he had to get used to as well.

 

Driving had always been something Lindsay enjoyed. It was the reason why she still owned an old manual car, despite nearly everyone constantly telling her that autonomous cars were much safer. What a boring way to get around. Lindsay was already dreading the day she would have to replace her old rust bucket.

Her time on the highway was very limited, the exit that would take them home coming up too soon for Lindsay’s liking. There weren’t many other cars around at this time of day and it was a welcome change from the usual busy traffic. Any other time Lindsay would have considered just going for a drive but she also wanted to go home so she exited the highway. 

It didn’t take long for an intersection to come up and the traffic lights turned red ahead of her, even though there were no other cars in sight.

‘ _Of course_ ,’ Lindsay thought as she stopped the car. Every damn time. 

It gave her a moment to look over at Connor, who was still staring out of the passenger side window. He had been uncharacteristically quiet for a while. Lindsay thought the unexpected extra time she had gotten to spend with him tonight had been nice. She didn’t know why but she always liked seeing him interact with animals. Maybe because it always made him seem so at peace. She smiled a little at the thought. CyberLife’s priced deviant hunter, at girl’s night, watching a crappy romance movie while playing with two puppies. It was ironic, really. 

 

‘Green,’ Connor said then, never turning around.

‘What?’ Lindsay blinked, brain struggling to come back to reality.

‘The traffic light. It turned green.’ 

Right. She was still driving. Luckily there was no one else around to witness her inattention. The car rolled across the intersection easily.

 

‘If you’re going to stare at me, could you at least do it while you’re not responsible for operating a vehicle?’

‘I wasn’t _staring_.’

‘I saw your reflection in the window. You were looking at me for thirty-eight seconds straight. 

Lindsay shrugged. For a moment she wondered if she should be embarrassed to have been caught staring. Then she decided against it. 

‘If you were watching me watching you for thirty-eight seconds, weren’t you staring, too?’ 

‘At least I was being subtle about it.’ Connor said it almost absentmindedly and Lindsay started to think he was _in a mood_. 

 

‘Why did it take you nearly two hours to send me a photo of the dogs anyway?’ 

‘What?’ She felt a little caught off guard by the question, as though she had done something wrong.

‘You left home at 7.14pm, so you arrived at Sophia’s apartment at approximately 7.35pm. I didn’t receive your text until 9.28pm which means it took you almost two hours to message me.’ 

‘No technology on girl’s night.’ 

‘The TV was on.’ Lindsay almost rolled her eyes at him. ‘So were the lights.’ Now she _did_  roll her eyes at him. 

‘No technology _apart_ from the _TV_ and the _lights_.’ 

‘Is that why I wasn’t allowed to come?’ 

Lindsay had to quickly look over at him in hopes of discovering he was joking. His recent understanding of sarcasm had brought on the occasional joke, but his voice usually remained flat so she was relying on his expression to get the message across. In this case, his expression was still serious. 

‘Connor, you’re a _person_.’ She couldn’t believe she even had to say that out loud. ‘Not some gadget or something.’ 

‘So why wasn’t I allowed to come?’ 

‘It was _girl’s night_. Is that really so hard to understand?’ 

‘Yes. What made tonight any different to other nights?’ 

Lindsay bit back a sigh. She had always tried to be patient with him but sometimes she did reach her limits. ‘Look, girl’s night is just an expression. Traditionally it’s supposed to be a get together of a couple of female friends doing _stereotypically_ girly things. I know the concept is outdated but the term just stuck around.’ 

‘You were watching a romance movie. That’s a stereotypically girly thing to do.’ 

Lindsay shrugged. ‘Just because it’s stereotypical doesn’t mean we _can’t_ do it.’ 

‘But women used to be at a disadvantage because of their gender. The movie was from that period in time. I don’t understand why you would be interested in something that displayed you in such a state.’ 

 

For a moment Lindsay seriously considered just _flooring it_ and running the car into the nearest wall or something, just to escape the conversation. She didn’t understand where he was trying to go with this. But to be honest, she assumed he didn’t quite know either. Connor still struggled expressing, or even understanding, his emotions. Usually it was best to just let him continue to ask questions until he was either satisfied and let the topic go or until Lindsay figured out what he was actually trying to say. 

 

‘Look, sometimes things don’t mean anything and a movie is just a quick bit of entertainment. But sometimes people also like to romanticize what they don’t have, even if it puts them at a disadvantage. I guess some women just like the idea of a strong man to come and take care of everything, so to say. At least in theory. Enjoying a certain movie trope doesn’t necessarily mean you want it to happen in your own life.’ 

His led turned orange and he was quiet for a while. Lindsay was hoping that would finally be the end of it, even though she still didn’t understand Connor’s sudden obsession with girl’s night and everything that came with it.

 ‘I didn’t like the movie,’ he said then, suddenly. 

‘Excuse me?’ 

‘The movie you were watching. I didn’t like it.’ 

‘Me neither. Ava chose it; she’s into all these really old romance movies.’ 

‘It seemed _unrealistic_. The male main character wasn’t very nice to the female one, considering they were in a relationship. If I spoke to you like that, you would be angry with me.’ 

Lindsay recalled one of the few scenes of the movie she actually remembered. Connor was right. The male character had been narcissistic and rude, continuously talking down to his girlfriend. 

‘If you spoke to me like that, our relationship would be over really fast.’ 

Connor nodded thoughtfully. ‘So it wasn’t a very good depiction of relationships, correct?’ 

‘Yes.’ Lindsay got the uncomfortable feeling that this whole issue was going to go on for a while. Especially because she still wasn’t any closer to figuring out what was _really_ bothering him.

 

‘Romance is still a very abstract concept to me.’ 

‘How so?’ 

‘I just... don’t understand. There seem to be a lot of rules for what you’re supposed to do and what you’re not supposed to do, but they also don’t seem to be very concrete.’ 

‘You know that every interpersonal relationship has rules, in a sense.’ At least this was something she was slightly more familiar with, considering that coding interpersonal skills programs had been her job at one point. ‘Some of them are specific to the kind of relationship. Others are applicable to all relationships, for example that you shouldn’t purposefully injure anyone. You know you do have a program for that though, right?’ 

Connor nodded again. ‘I’m aware of that. But I’m trying to understand the principle behind it.’ 

 

Lindsay supposed that did make sense. After all the programs were just lines of codes, written by someone much like her, providing a directory of behavioural algorithms. 

‘I’ve analysed some of my previous interactions and the data suggests I am improving in most areas,’ he continued. ‘It’s just romantic relationships that still appear to be an issue.’ 

‘ _Romantic relationships_?’ Lindsay questioned, stressing the plural s. ‘Fucking hell, how many do you have?’ 

His expression lit up a little at his slip of the tongue. It was so _human_. ‘Just the one.’ 

‘You sure?’ 

‘Positive.’ 

‘I’ll believe you just this once.’ Lindsay winked at him playfully. ‘You’re doing fine,’ she said then. ‘Don’t worry so much.’ 

She turned the car off and reached for her phone in the centre console. Connor didn’t move.

‘According to the research I’ve done, important factors in a successful relationship are having interests in common and sharing hobbies. We have neither.’ 

Lindsay shrugged. ‘I like the dog photo thing.’ 

‘I like the dog photos, too.’ 

‘See, we’ve got one thing going for us.’ 

Still he didn’t move and Lindsay resigned to _sitting in the dark car in front of their house._

‘An active social life also seems of importance.’ 

‘Sounds about right,’ Lindsay said carefully, feeling this was going somewhere she didn’t like. 

‘Then why couldn’t I come to girl’s night?’ 

 

Three deep breaths. _Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exha-_

‘Lindsay?’ 

‘ _For fuck’s sake Connor_ , why did you want to come to girl’s night so bad?’ Her voice rang in her own ears, far too loud and shrill. She felt bad immediately. 

‘I just wanted to meet your friends,’ he said, his soft tone a stark contrast to Lindsay’s outburst. 

 

If she thought she had felt bad before, she felt terrible now. All the pieces fell into place suddenly. 

Lindsay’s exhale turned into a quiet sigh as her fingers played with her key card.

‘I’m sorry I didn’t introduce you to my friends,’ she began, searching for the right words. ‘I should have, a while ago probably, but I didn’t because I thought it would be easier. I was wrong and I’m sorry.’

That was it, she realized. Connor was upset with her for not letting him meet her friends, thinking it somehow related to something _he_ was doing wrong in their relationship. He just didn’t know how to express it, instead asking a million questions. 

‘Thank you,’ Connor said slowly. Lindsay knew from experience that people rarely _sincerely_ apologized to him. Whenever she had done so, he had been quick to forgive her. 

‘Aren’t you forgetting something?’ she asked, hoping it would be the same this time. 

‘Apology accepted.’ Connor sounded far too smug for her liking. Lindsay decided she deserved it and didn’t complain. 

 

The front door unlocked by itself, much like the car door had earlier. 

‘You should invite your friends over some time.’ 

‘Why?’ Lindsay asked as the door slammed shut behind her, security system beeping as the door locked again. 

‘Isn’t that what friends do? And besides, you told me yourself that it’s custom to have a housewarming party.’ 

Next to Lindsay, the light of the security panel faded into a soft blue glow, signalling night-time mode. ‘We’ve been living here for like three months already. Bit late for a housewarming party.’ 

_‘Better late than never.’_ Connor sounded so damn smug and Lindsay hated herself for sarcastically using the saying around him so much. ‘Just invite them.’ 

‘You realize Sophia isn’t going to bring the puppies over even if I do invite her, right?’ 

‘Oh.’ There was a moment of pause. ‘Maybe she would if you asked her to.’ 

‘I’m not asking someone over just so you can pat their dogs.’ 

‘That’s disappointing.’ 

_‘I’m sorry,’_ she repeated her words from earlier, tone soaked in sarcasm this time. 

‘Perhaps you could still ask her. I do believe you owe me, after all.’ 

‘Fine.’ Lindsay rolled her eyes at him but couldn’t suppress a laugh. Connor and his stupid obsession with dogs. She couldn’t quite manage to be annoyed with him though. Some habits were easier to deal with than others. 


End file.
